Robotic interface positioning determination systems and methods

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure is directed to a robotic surgical system that includes a robotic surgical device having a robotic arm and an end effector with a pair of jaw members. A handpiece includes a pinch interface to control the arm or end effector, optical marker(s), an accelerometer, and a transmitter to transmit data from the pinch interface or accelerometer to the robotic surgical device. The system further includes a tracking system, to track the marker and provide a position or orientation of the handpiece. A processor receives: (i) the position or orientation of the handpiece from the tracking system; and (ii) the measured acceleration of the handpiece from the accelerometer. The processor integrates the measured acceleration to establish a second position beyond that of the tracking system. The processor controls movement of the robotic arm and end effector based on the received data from the camera or the accelerometer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a U.S. National Stage Application filed under 35U.S.C. §371(a) of International Patent Application Serial No.PCT/US2014/069015, filed Dec. 8, 2014, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/983,745, filed Apr. 24, 2014,the entire disclosure of each of which are incorporated by referenceherein.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to robotic surgical systems.Particularly, the present disclosure is directed to a hand-held userinterface for controlling a robotic surgical system.

2. Background of the Related Art

Robotic surgical systems have been used in minimally invasive medicalprocedures. Some robotic surgical systems included a console supportinga robot arm and a surgical instrument or end effector, such as forcepsor a grasping tool, mounted to the robot arm. A mechanical input devicehaving multiple joints was manipulated by surgeons to move the robot armand/or surgical instrument mounted to the robot arm.

The mechanical input device offered a limited range of motion in whichthe device could be moved that varied depending on the configuration ofjoints and rods connecting the joints. Larger ranges of motion wereachieved by enlarging the joints and/or rods to increase workspace inwhich the input device moved and/or upscaling the output motion of theend effector. Enlarging the joints, rods, and/or workspace made thesystem less easily transportable. Upscaling the end effector motionreduced the precision of micro-movements of the end effector fromergonomically scaled motions of the input device, making the system lessprecise.

The size of the robotic system and input device may be reduced by usinga wireless input device with optical tracking technology, such as lightsources and position sensitive detectors, instead of a mechanical inputdevice. While an optical input device would eliminate space requirementsof the mechanical rods and joints, the range of motion would still belimited by the properties and configuration of the position detectorsand the light sources. Larger ranges of motion were also supported byupscaling the end effector motion and thereby reducing the precision ofthe surgical system.

There is a need for easily transportable surgical robot input deviceshaving a larger range of motion that also occupy a smaller footprint.There is also a need for optical tracking input devices supporting alarger range of motion that do not reduce the precision of end effectormovements through upscaling.

SUMMARY

Robotic surgical systems may be programmed with additional instructionsand include additional non-optical sensors that supplement opticaltracking sensors in the input device. The additional non-optical sensorsmay be configured to provide an additional range of motion for the inputdevice that exceeds the range of motion of the optical tracking sensors.The additional programming instructions may include algorithms thatreduce position calculation errors between the signals obtained from theoptical and non-optical sensors. These algorithms may also provide for asmoother transition when changing the input source of the positionalcalculations between the optical and the non-optical sensors.

A robotic surgical system may include a robotic surgical device havingat least one robotic arm and an end effector having a pair of jawmembers at a distal end of the robotic arm. The system also includes anoperating console. A handpiece includes a pinch interface configured tocontrol the end effector on the robotic surgical device, at least onemarker, an accelerometer configured to measure acceleration of thehandpiece, and a transmitter configured to transmit data from at leastone of the pinch interface or accelerometer to the robotic surgicaldevice. The system also includes a tracking system that tracks themarker and provides a position or orientation of the handpiece. Acontroller receives the position or orientation of the handpiece fromthe tracking system or the measured acceleration of the handpiece fromthe accelerometer. The controller controls the movement of the roboticarm based on the position, the orientation, or the acceleration of thehandpiece.

The pinch interface may include a pair of pinch members. In someaspects, the pair of pinch members may include at least one pinch sensorconfigured to measure relative movement of the pinch members. Therelative movement of the pair of pinch members causes the pair of jawmembers to move. The measured relative movement of the pair of pinchmembers is multiplied by a predetermined factor to cause movement of thepair of jaw members.

In some aspects, the pair of pinch members may include a force sensor tomeasure a force applied to the pair of pinch members. The force appliedto the pair of pinch members causes the pair of jaw members to move to aposition at which a closure force to tissue disposed between the pair ofjaw members is proportionally matched to the pinch members.

The robotic surgical device may include a plurality of robotic arms andthe handpiece may include a switch configured to select one of therobotic arms.

In other aspects, the handpiece may include a switch configured toengage a master device or a slave device.

In aspects the tracking system is an optical, a magnetic, or aninductive tracking system.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, a hand-held instrument forcontrolling a robotic surgical device is provided. The hand-heldinstrument includes at least one handpiece that has a pinch interfaceconfigured to control an end effector on a robotic surgical device andan accelerometer configured to measure acceleration of the handpiece.The handpiece also includes a transmitter configured to transmit datafrom at least one of the pinch interface or the accelerometer to arobotic surgical device to control movement of a robotic surgicaldevice.

In yet another aspect of the present disclosure, a method forcontrolling a robotic surgical device using a hand-held interface isprovided. The method includes capturing an image of a plurality ofoptical markers on the hand-held interface. A position or orientation ofthe hand-held interface is determined based on the image. Accelerationdata is received from the hand-held interface. Movement of the roboticsurgical device is controlled based on the determined position ororientation of the hand-held interface or the acceleration data of thehand-held interface.

A position or orientation of the robotic surgical device may becontrolled based on the determined position or orientation of thehand-held interface. The position or orientation of the robotic surgicaldevice may be controlled based on the acceleration data when theposition and orientation of the hand-held interface cannot bedetermined. The acceleration data may be used to calculate an estimatedposition or orientation of the robotic surgical device.

In some aspects, determining the position or orientation of thehand-held interface includes comparing the captured image to a databaseof images. In other aspects, determining the position or orientation ofthe hand-held interface includes calculating at least two distancesbetween at least two of the optical markers.

In some aspects, position of the handpiece is brought back intoalignment when the handpiece is again locatable by the optical markersdetermined orientation by adjusting a non-zero velocity movement of therobot.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, a method of reorienting ahand-held interface with a robotic surgical device having an endeffector is provided. The method includes detecting the hand-heldinterface in a working field and establishing an absolute position andangular errors of the hand-held interface to the end effector. Movementof the hand-held interface is detected and a positional or angularvelocity offset of the hand-held interface is calculated. The vector ofthe hand-held interface near a current vector of movement relative tothe end effector is aligned based on the calculated positional orangular velocity offset of the hand-held interface.

The calculated positional or angular velocity offset may be a fractionalmultiplier of a velocity of the hand-held interface. A magnitude of thefractional multiplier may be derived from a magnitude of an offset in anorientation of the movement and a scaling factor. The scaling factor maybe a non-dimensional factor, an angular factor, a dimensional factor, ora time factor.

Further details and aspects of the present disclosure are described inmore detail below with reference to the appended figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of the presentdisclosure will become more apparent in light of the following detaileddescription when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a robotic surgical system inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a handpiece shown in accordance with anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the handpiece of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a controller in accordance with anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart depicting a tracking algorithm in accordance withan embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 6 is a flowchart depicting an alignment algorithm in accordancewith an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Particular embodiments of the present disclosure are described hereinwith reference to the accompanying drawings; however, it is to beunderstood that the disclosed embodiments are merely examples of thedisclosure and may be embodied in various forms. Well-known functions orconstructions are not described in detail to avoid obscuring the presentdisclosure in unnecessary detail. Therefore, specific structural andfunctional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted aslimiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representativebasis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ thepresent disclosure in virtually any appropriately detailed structure.Like reference numerals may refer to similar or identical elementsthroughout the description of the figures.

This description may use the phrases “in an embodiment,” “inembodiments,” “in some embodiments,” or “in other embodiments,” whichmay each refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments inaccordance with the present disclosure. For the purposes of thisdescription, a phrase in the form “A or B” means “(A), (B), or (A andB)”. For the purposes of this description, a phrase in the form “atleast one of A, B, or C” means “(A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (Band C), or (A, B and C)”.

The term “clinician” refers to any medical professional (i.e., doctor,surgeon, nurse, or the like) performing a medical procedure involvingthe use of embodiments described herein. As shown in the drawings anddescribed throughout the following description, as is traditional whenreferring to relative positioning on a surgical instrument, the term“proximal” or “trailing” refers to the end of the apparatus which iscloser to the clinician and the term “distal” or “leading” refers to theend of the apparatus which is further away from the clinician.

The systems described herein may also utilize one or more controllers toreceive information and transform the received information to generatean output. The controller may include any type of computing device,computational circuit, or any type of processor or processing circuitcapable of executing a series of instructions that are stored in amemory. The controller may include multiple processors and/or multicorecentral processing units (CPUs) and may include any type of processor,such as a microprocessor, digital signal processor, microcontroller, orthe like. The controller may also include a memory to store data and/oralgorithms to perform a series of instructions.

Any of the herein described methods, programs, algorithms or codes maybe converted to, or expressed in, a programming language or computerprogram. A “Programming Language” and “Computer Program” is any languageused to specify instructions to a computer, and includes (but is notlimited to) these languages and their derivatives: Assembler, Basic,Batch files, BCPL, C, C+, C++, Delphi, Fortran, Java, JavaScript,Machine code, operating system command languages, Pascal, Perl, PL1,scripting languages, Visual Basic, metalanguages which themselvesspecify programs, and all first, second, third, fourth, and fifthgeneration computer languages. Also included are database and other dataschemas, and any other meta-languages. For the purposes of thisdefinition, no distinction is made between languages which areinterpreted, compiled, or use both compiled and interpreted approaches.For the purposes of this definition, no distinction is made betweencompiled and source versions of a program. Thus, reference to a program,where the programming language could exist in more than one state (suchas source, compiled, object, or linked) is a reference to any and allsuch states. The definition also encompasses the actual instructions andthe intent of those instructions.

Any of the herein described methods, programs, algorithms or codes maybe contained on one or more machine-readable media or memory. The term“memory” may include a mechanism that provides (e.g., stores and/ortransmits) information in a form readable by a machine such a processor,computer, or a digital processing device. For example, a memory mayinclude a read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magneticdisk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, or anyother volatile or non-volatile memory storage device. Code orinstructions contained thereon can be represented by carrier wavesignals, infrared signals, digital signals, and by other like signals.

A switch may include a device capable of effecting a change between atleast two states. Thus, a switch may include a push button, toggle,transistor, rotary mechanism, scroll wheel, rocker, knife switch, and soon.

The present disclosure is directed to a hand-held interface or handpiecedesigned to be sterilized and enable a clinician to operate a roboticsurgical system from within the sterile operating field. The clinicianmay have separate left and right handpieces. Each of the handpieces maycontain finger pinch controls that include pinch sensors and forcesensors. The handpieces are tracked in absolute space by positionalsensor systems that are commonly used in operating rooms (e.g., anoptical system). The handpieces of the present disclosure alsoincorporate a-axis accelerometers to provide redundant position ororientation information. The handpieces transmit data to a controllerwhich controls the robotic surgical devices. The position of thehandpiece is augmented using the accelerometer data when the opticalsystems are unable to track the handpiece (e.g., when a clinicianobscures the view of any or all optical markers).

In some embodiments, magnetic field sensors that use coils in thehandpiece may be used to track the handpiece via magnetic or inductivetracking systems.

Turning to FIG. 1, one example of a robotic surgical system inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure is showngenerally as 100. The system 100 includes a robotic surgical device 102that includes a plurality of robotic arms 104 having end effectors 106and a motor 108 configured to control the plurality of robotic arms 104and the end effectors 106. The end effectors 106 may be forceps (asshown in FIG. 1), probes, cameras, or any other instrument suitable foruse in a surgical procedure. The robotic surgical device 102 iscontrolled by a controller 110. A display 112 provides a visualrepresentation of a surgical field to the clinician. The display 112 maybe a television or monitor that provides a two-dimensional orthree-dimensional view of the surgical field. In some embodiments, thedisplay 112 may be a pair of glasses that projects an image onto one ofthe lenses (e.g., GOOGLE GLASS®).

A handpiece 114 controls the robotic surgical device 102 by providinginstructions to controller 110 via a transmission conduit 116. Thetransmission conduit 116 may be a wire, optical fiber, radio waves, orother wireless communication conduit. The system 100 may include asingle handpiece 114 to control the robotic surgical device 102 or thesystem 100 may include two handpieces 114 (a left and a righthandpiece). An optical measurement system (OMS) 118, which may includeat least one image capturing device and a processor, is used to track aposition or orientation of the handpiece 114. The OMS 118 may be, forexample, the POLARIS SPECTRA® or the POLARIS VICRA® systems(manufactured by Northern Digital, Inc.).

FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate one example of the handpiece 114 for use in theembodiments described herein. The handpiece 114 may have an ergonomicdesign to reduce any fatigue experienced by the clinician. The handpiece114 includes a housing 120 configured to house the various components ofthe handpiece 114. An activation switch 122 is used to activate therobotic surgical device 102. A pinch interface 124 includes pair ofpinch members 126 a, 126 b that pivot about points 128 a, 128 b,respectively. Each of the pinch members 126 a, 126 b included a pinchsensor 130 that determines the relative distance between the pinchmembers 126 a, 126 b. The jaw members of the end effector 106 arecontrolled to open or close based on the determined relative distance ofpinch members 126 a, 126 b. Once the pinch members 126 a, 126 b reachtheir respective movement limits, a force sensor 132 determines theamount of force being applied to the pinch members 126 a, 126 b. Theamount of force being applied is multiplied by a factor and translatedas a closure force for the jaw members of the end effector 106. In otherembodiments, activation of a stapling or vessel sealing procedure mayapply a predetermined closure force for the jaw members of the endeffector 106.

The handpiece 114 also includes one or more function switches 134. Thehandpiece 114 may include a display switch 136. When the clinicianactivates the display switch 136, the clinician may use the handpiece114 to control the display 112. For example, the clinician may move acursor, zoom in or out, select areas, or any other function that may beperformed on the display 112. Because the robotic surgical device 102has a plurality of arms 104, the clinician may use an arm selectionswitch 138 to select one of the arms 104 of robotic surgical device 102.Upon selection of one of the arms 104, movement of the handpiece 114causes movement of the selected arm 104. The present robotic surgicaldevice may also include a master/slave configuration where the roboticsurgical device includes a number of master devices and each masterdevice includes a corresponding number of slave devices. A master/slaveswitch 140 may be used to select the various master and slave devices.The handpiece 114 is the master and the arms 104 are the slaves.

The handpiece 114 also includes an accelerometer 142 for measuringproper acceleration, which is the acceleration relative to a free-fall,or inertial, observer who is momentarily at rest relative to the objectbeing measured. Specifically, the accelerometer 142 may be a single-axisor multi-axis accelerometer that may detect magnitude and direction ofthe proper acceleration (or g-force), as a vector quantity. Theaccelerometer 142 may also sense rotational acceleration, coordinateacceleration, vibration, or shock of handpiece 114.

A processor 144 receives signals from activation switch 122, pinchsensor 130, force sensor 132, function switches 134, and accelerometer142 and transmits the signals by conventional means via a transceiver146 to the controller 110. The transceiver 146 may also receive a signalfrom controller 110 to provide a haptic feedback to the clinician via ahaptic device 148 provided on handpiece 114. The haptic device 148 maybe any device that provides a simulated tactile response to theclinician.

The handpiece 114 also includes a plurality of optical markers 149. Theoptical markers 149 are arranged in a pattern (e.g., a diamond patternas shown in FIG. 2) in order to provide a distance and an orientation ofthe handpiece 114 as will be described below. Any number of opticalmarkers 149 may be used and the optical markers 149 may be arranged inany pattern.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of the controller 110 of FIG. 1. Thecontroller 110 includes a processor 150, an input 152, a memory 154, arobotics controller 156, a display control 158, and a transceiver 160.The processor 150 may be an integrated circuit or a circuit composed ofanalog or digital components that receives information or data andprocesses the received information or data to provide an output. Forexample, the processor 150 may integrate acceleration sensor signalsfrom accelerometer 142 to determine orthogonal and rotational movementor position. The input 152, which may be one or more switches, akeyboard, mouse, a touch screen, etc., is operated by the clinician toperform various functions. The memory 154 may store algorithms that areused by the processor to control various aspects of the robotic surgicalsystem 100. The memory 154 may also store images related to a patient ora database of optical marker patterns to determine the distance andorientation of the handpiece 114. The robotics controller 156 receivessignals from the processor 150 to control movement of the roboticsurgical devices 102. The display control 158 receives data from theprocessor 150 and renders an image that is provided to the display 112.The transceiver 160 receives data from the handpiece 114. That data isused by the processor 150 to control the robotic surgical device 102 orthe display 112.

FIG. 5, which will be discussed in conjunction with FIGS. 1-4, is aflowchart depicting a tracking method of the handpiece 114 in accordancewith an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 5, therobotic surgical device 102 is activated in step s200. The OMS 118captures an image of the optical markers 149 in step s202. After the OMS118 captures the image, the image is processed by the processor 150 todetermine if the image includes all of the optical markers 149. If thecaptured image includes all of the optical markers 149, the processproceeds to step s206 where the position or orientation of the surgicaldevice is determined. The memory 154 stores a lookup table where two ormore optical marker pattern images are associated with a distance andorientation. In step s206, the processor 150 compares the captured imageto the images of optical marker patterns stored in memory 154. Theprocessor then determines which of the stored images best matches thatcaptured image. The processor 150 then reads the lookup table to extractthe distance and orientation of the handpiece 114. In other embodiments,the distance or angles between optical markers can be calculated todetermine the distance and orientation of the handpiece 114. Thedistance and orientation of the handpiece 114 is translated by theprocessor 150 to determine the desired position and orientation of therobotic surgical device 102 or the end effectors 106. Then in step s208,the robotic surgical device 102 or the end effectors 106 are moved basedon the determined position or orientation. In step s210, the processor150 determines whether it should continue tracking the handpiece 114. Ifthe handpiece 114 is no longer needed, the process proceeds to step s212where tracking is discontinued. If the handpiece 114 is still needed,the process proceeds to step s202.

In step s204, if the captured image does not contain all of the opticalmarkers 149, the acceleration of the handpiece 114 is captured by theaccelerometer 142 in step s214. The accelerometer 142 measures themagnitude and direction of movement of the handpiece 114 as well assenses the orientation of the handpiece 114. The magnitude and directionor the orientation of the handpiece 114 is provided to the processor 150to estimate the desired position or orientation of the robotic surgicaldevice 102 or the end effectors 106 in step s216. The robotic surgicaldevice 102 or end effectors 106 are then moved based on the estimatedposition or orientation in step s218.

Because the accelerometer 142 of the handpiece 114 lacks a truereference to determine the position or orientation and the potential ofdrift relative to the patient, the processor 150 executes an alignmentalgorithm stored in memory 154. The alignment algorithm reestablishes anabsolute orientation of the handpiece 114 with the robotic surgicaldevice 102, the robotic arms 104, the end effectors 106, the surgicalfield, or the patient without any disorientating jumps by adjusting thenon-zero velocities to bring the computed handpiece 114 position back inabsolute orientation with the optical tracking system. The system willnot make corrections when movement of the handpiece 114 is approachingzero velocity. As shown in FIG. 6, the algorithm starts in step s300where the handpiece 114 is detected. In step s302, the absolute positionand angular errors of the handpiece 114 are established by reversecalculating the location of the handpiece 114 with respect to the robotscurrent position and determining the current off set from the positionof the handpiece 114 with respect to the robots current position and theposition of the handpiece 114 in the optical field. In step s304,movement of the handpiece 114 is detected by the processor 150. Forexample, when the handpiece 114 is moved, the accelerometer 142transmits acceleration data to the processor 150. Based on theacceleration data, the processor 150 determines that the handpiece 114is moving.

The processor 150 then calculates the positional or angular velocityoffset needed to bring the vector of the handpiece 114 into alignmentwith the current vector of movement relative to the robotic surgicaldevice 102, the robotic arms 104, or the end effectors 106 in step s306.The positional or angular velocity offset is a fractional multiplier ofthe velocity of the handpiece 114. The magnitude of the fractionalmultiplier is derived from the magnitude of the offset in theorientation of the movement of the handpiece 114 and a scale factor. Thescaling factor may be a non-dimensional factor, an angular factor, adimensional factor, or a time factor.

For example, in a given system where the device, e.g., the end effectors106, are mathematically located as a vector reference from a x, y, zcoordinate positioned within an overall coordinate position and thevector of the handpiece 114 has drifted angularly while the clinicianmoves the handpiece 114 in a rotation about the y-axis, the magnitude ofthe fractional multiplier can be calculated as follows:

{dot over (ω)}_(Y) _(ROBOT) ={dot over (ω)}_(Y) _(Handpiece) +└{dot over(ω)}_(Y) _(Handpiece) ×(ω_(Y) _(Handpiece) −ω_(Y) _(ROBOT))×ScaleFactor┘   (Eq. 1),

where ω is the angular position and {dot over (ω)} is the angularvelocity.

In the alignment algorithm, the larger the inverse time constant (scalefactor), the faster the alignment occurs. This results in a correctionthat is asymptotic to the fully aligned condition in which the offsetbetween the velocity of the handpiece 114 and the velocity of therobotic surgical device 102, the robotic arms 104, or the end effectors106 approach equality as the required correction approaches zeroregardless of the magnitude of the scale factor.

In other embodiments, the velocity offset may be constant as long as thevelocity along the calculated offset exists and the error is greaterthan zero (0). In such situations, the inverse time constant should berelatively small in order to maintain the desired subtleness of thealignment process. There may be no correction when the velocity is zeroto prevent unintentional movement and eliminate any disorienting affectsdue to mismatched motions between the user and the robot.

Once the positional or angular velocity offset is calculated in steps306, the vector of the handpiece 114 is aligned to the vector of therobotic surgical device 102, the robotic arms 104, or the end effectors106.

It should be understood that the foregoing description is onlyillustrative of the present disclosure. Various alternatives andmodifications can be devised by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the disclosure. Accordingly, the present disclosure isintended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variances.The embodiments described with reference to the attached drawing figs.are presented only to demonstrate certain examples of the disclosure.Other elements, steps, methods and techniques that are insubstantiallydifferent from those described above and/or in the appended claims arealso intended to be within the scope of the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A robotic surgical system comprising: a roboticsurgical device including: at least one robotic arm; and an end effectorhaving a pair of jaw members at a distal end of the robotic arm; atleast one handpiece, the handpiece including: a pinch interfaceconfigured to control the end effector on the robotic surgical device;at least one marker; an accelerometer configured to measure accelerationof the handpiece; and a transmitter configured to transmit data from atleast one of the pinch interface or accelerometer to the roboticsurgical device; a tracking system configured to track the at least onemarker and provide a position or orientation of the handpiece; and acontroller configured to receive data indicative of: (i) the position ofthe handpiece from the tracking system (ii) the measured acceleration ofthe handpiece from the accelerometer, and integrate the measuredacceleration to establish a second position beyond that of the trackingsystem, the controller being configured to control movement of therobotic arm based on the position or the measured acceleration of thehandpiece.
 2. The robotic surgical system of claim 1, wherein the pinchinterface includes a pair of pinch members.
 3. The robotic surgicalsystem of claim 2, wherein the pair of pinch members include at leastone pinch sensor configured to measure relative movement of the pair ofpinch members.
 4. The robotic surgical system of claim 3, wherein therelative movement of the pair of pinch members causes the pair of jawmembers to move.
 5. The robotic surgical system of claim 4, wherein themeasured relative movement of the pair of pinch members is multiplied bya predetermined factor to cause movement of the pair of jaw members. 6.The robotic surgical system of claim 2, wherein the pair of pinchmembers include a force sensor configured to measure a force applied tothe pair of pinch members.
 7. The robotic surgical system of claim 6,the force applied to the pair of pinch members causes the pair of jawmembers to move to a position at which a closure force to tissuedisposed between the pair of jaw members is proportionally matched tothe pinch members.
 8. The robotic surgical system of claim 1, whereinthe robotic surgical device includes a plurality of robotic arms and thehandpiece includes a switch configured to select one of the plurality ofrobotic arms.
 9. The robotic surgical system of claim 1 where thetracking system is an optical, a magnetic, or an inductive trackingsystem.
 10. A hand-held instrument for controlling a robotic surgicaldevice, the hand-held instrument comprising: at least one handpiece, thehandpiece including: a pinch interface configured to control an endeffector on a robotic surgical device; an accelerometer configured tomeasure acceleration of the handpiece; and a transmitter configured totransmit data from at least one of the pinch interface or theaccelerometer to a robotic surgical device to control movement of arobotic surgical device.
 11. A method for controlling a robotic surgicaldevice using a hand-held interface, the method comprising: capturing animage of a plurality of optical markers on the hand-held interface;determining a position or orientation of the hand-held interface basedthe image; receiving acceleration data from the hand-held interface; andcontrolling movement of the robotic surgical device based on thedetermined position or orientation of the hand-held interface or theacceleration data of the hand-held interface.
 12. The method of claim11, wherein a position or orientation of the robotic surgical device iscontrolled based on the determined position or orientation of thehand-held interface.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the position ororientation of the robotic surgical device is controlled based on theacceleration data when the position and orientation of the hand-heldinterface can not be determined.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein theacceleration data is used to calculate an estimated position ororientation of the robotic surgical device.
 15. The method of claim 11,wherein determining the position or orientation of the hand-heldinterface includes comparing the captured image to a database of images.16. The method of claim 11, wherein determining the position ororientation of the hand-held device includes calculating a plurality ofdistances between the plurality of optical markers.
 17. The method ofclaim 11, wherein the position of the handpiece is brought intoalignment when the handpiece is locatable by the optical markers byadjusting a non-zero velocity movement of the robot.
 18. A method ofreorienting a hand-held interface with a robotic surgical device havingan end effector, the method comprising: detecting the hand-heldinterface in a working field; establishing an absolute position andangular errors of the hand-held interface to the end effector; detectingmovement of the hand-held interface; calculating a positional or angularvelocity offset of the hand-held interface; and aligning the vector ofthe hand-held interface near a current vector of movement relative tothe end effector based on the calculated positional or angular velocityoffset of the hand-held interface.
 19. The method of claim 18, whereinthe calculated positional or angular velocity offset is a fractionalmultiplier of a velocity of the hand-held interface.
 20. The method ofclaim 19, wherein a magnitude of the fractional multiplier is derivedfrom a magnitude of an orientation offset and a scaling factor.
 21. Themethod of claim 20, wherein the scaling factor is a non-dimensionalfactor, an angular factor, a dimensional factor, or a time factor.